2. Write a note whether the schools should re-open. Why or why not?
Answers
Answer:
Covid-19 has emerged as the biggest disruption to education ever recorded, affecting nearly 1.6 billion students in more than 190 countries, most of them in school. Close to 250 million children in India have been physically away from schools for about half a year now.
Reopening of schools is a worrisome dilemma. There are rising concerns about the marginalised children, for whom schools have been havens of health, safety and nutrition, besides learning. The prime minister's mention of the absence of school children at this year’s Independence Day function at the Red Fort was a poignant reminder of the state of school-going children amid the coronavirus crisis.
The states are taking their own call. Several of them have decided to keep the schools tightly shut still while some others have availed the provisions of the latest Unlock, atleast on trial basis. A recent survey in Bihar showed that about 85% of parents of students of classes X and XII want their children to return to school. A pan-India uniform response on school reopening may elude for quite some time.
Schools are not seen as Covid-19 hotspots internationally. The UK experience in opening schools has been encouraging; with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying that pubs will have to close so that schools can run. In the USA, however, reopening of schools proved counterproductive, with several students falling sick. The loss to children from closure of schools are not in any doubt, though the gains from it for reducing infection will remain an intricate debate